Melatonin
Also called N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine
Melatonin is the hormone your brain releases when it gets dark - the signal that says night has started.
Tested in large, properly controlled human trials. The ranges below are drawn from that trial data alongside what the community reports using.
- Longevity & anti-aging
- Sleep
The quick answer
Melatonin is the hormone your brain releases when it gets dark - the signal that says night has started. It is not a sedative and it does not knock you out. It moves the clock. That one distinction explains almost every complaint people have about it.
What it is not
Not a sleeping pill. It signals night; it does not force sleep.
Why people use it
🌙 Shifts the body clock - its real strength, especially for jet lag and shift work; 😴 Shortens time to fall asleep; ✈️ Well studied for travel; 💸 Cheap and available nearly everywhere
What people report using
These are ranges other people have reported running. They are here so you can see what has actually been done — they are not medical advice and not a recommendation for you.
People report running this anywhere from 0.5mg to 3mg, nightly, 30–60 minutes before bed.Where somebody sits in that range depends on what they are using it for and what they are starting from — the low end is a deliberate choice a lot of people make, not a half-hearted version of the high end.
Sleep
- How often
- Nightly, 30–60 minutes before bed
- Route
- oral
- Where this comes from
- Large human trials
Shorter time to fall asleep is the well-evidenced effect.
What to expect, and when
Night 1-3: faster onset if the timing is right. Week 1-2: the clock shift, which is where the real effect lives. Grogginess, if it appears, means the dose is too high.
Side effects, and what people do about them
Morning grogginess is the most common complaint and it is nearly always a dose problem rather than a melatonin problem. Vivid dreams. Headache. A few report paradoxical alertness at high doses.
Go deeper
Open these only if you want them.
How it actually works
A pineal hormone acting at MT1 and MT2 receptors: MT1 damps the wake signal, MT2 shifts circadian phase. It is also a direct antioxidant that concentrates inside mitochondria, which is why a high-dose research interest exists alongside the ordinary sleep use.
More on the evidence
Not a peptide. Large human RCT base for sleep onset.
What people report, in full
The most repeated correction in every melatonin discussion is that people take far too much of it. The doses sold on shelves are many times what the body actually releases, and the reports of morning grogginess, headaches and "it stopped working" cluster almost entirely at the high end. The advice that keeps being given is to go down, not up. The second correction is about timing: it is a clock signal, so taking it a few hours before target bedtime is described as more effective than taking it at bedtime, particularly for anyone trying to move their sleep earlier or beat jet lag. Shift workers and long-haul travellers report the clearest benefit of any group. People expecting sedation are consistently disappointed, and are told - correctly - that they are asking it to do a job it does not do.
Worth knowing
One of the few things here with large positive human trials - and they mostly used low doses, which is the opposite of how it is usually sold.
Sources and review
This record is built on what the wider community reports doing and experiencing, summarised above. No counted dataset has been attached to this compound yet — when one is published, it goes here with its numbers.
Ferracioli-Oda E, Qawasmi A, Bloch MH. Meta-analysis: melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders. PLoS One 2013. PMID 23691095.Effects on sleep onset latency were statistically significant but modest.
These references were located by literature search and recorded as the primary sources behind this record. The publishers block automated retrieval, so they are pointers to the right papers rather than quotations we have checked line by line. They are replaced as we read them properly.
Last reviewed 2026-09-08.
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Still not sure?
Ask it the way you would ask a person. Follow-up questions are the point — it remembers what you already said.
Ask about Melatonin